McTaggart, J., Graphic novels: The good, the bad and the ugly

When it comes to Graphic Novels, I was psyched! I was first introduced to them my Senior Year of High School. This happened because I chose to take Literature of the Holocaust and my teacher had us read Maus I and II. I found the novels to be phenomenal and a fantastic way to get students to understand the true hardships and feelings of the Holocaust. A couple of the teachers, when they found out he was having us read those novels, became very upset stating that they were not real novels and that they were simply children books about World War II. Well not only did it hurt him, but it hurt me too since I wanted to be an English Teacher and loved the books. The teacher who had to strongest feelings against the novels happened to be my English teacher that year and he even asked me at the end of my class one day, because he saw me with the books, about how I felt reading them compared to our current reading of The Last Samurai. Being who I am I explained to him how much one could analyze Maus I and II and really dig deep into the Holocaust through those pages and even help out students with lower reading levels and such. I remember him not agreeing with me in that instant, but when we met again for class that Monday, he came to me and said that he read the books over the weekend and agreed with me. So many teachers are so against graphic novels, and it truly shocks me. I almost feel that many of the teachers today feel that if the book is not a few hundred pages long or a classic that the students just cannot learn from them or something, but they are wrong. Graphic Novels are just as important to the literature world as any other form of writing. It's just different because there are pictures